So, about a year ago my wife and I bought close to 5 acres in NW Washington State. It has lots of alder and maple with the occasional birch, fir, and cedar trees. The area was formerlly owned, I believe, by Sierra Pacific or a similar timber company. In course of the last year between dead fall, standing dead wood that we cut down, and a few problem trees that we took out I now have something on the order of 4 cords (I took a tape measure to it when it a touch under 2 cords) of cut, split and stacked wood. Plus I gave another 2-3 cords worth of logs to my FIL. And nothing (other than a camp-fire pit in the backyard) to burn it in.
I have 2 propane fireplaces in my house. Neither of them are all that great, but I really want to replace the one in the family room with a wood burning appliance. If it were just up to me I'd put in a free-standing wood stove with heat shields for reducing clearances. But SWMBO says no. She doesn't like the look of them. So I looked into inserts, but discovered that it would be prohibitively expensive to modify the bumpout where the gas fireplace is now to accept one.
Fearing my quest for wood heat was nearing an end I stopped into a wood stove dealer and discovered the high effeciency zero clearance fireplaces. A-ha! A plug-n-play wood stove that I can put in with relatively minimal modifications and still get the high effeciency heat of a stove or insert. With the potential for asthetics that SWMBO will approve of.
A few details about the house. If I miss any important ones just say so and I'll fill in the blanks. 2006 construction, and very well insulated. Fairly open floor plan. 3 bedrooms with the master on the opposite end from the rest of the bedrooms. Crawl space underneath that my wife's family can stand up in (they're shorter than average). Approx 2500sf plus a 350sf or so bonus room upstairs that's mostly a play room for the kids. We have a heat pump that, when it's not broken down (thank the Lord we have an HVAC repariman in the family - the things been tempermental since we bought the house) heats the house quite effectively. The existing gas fireplace is in the living room on an interior wall and has it's exhaust pipe going straight up through roof. It sits in a bumpout that's 24" deep, and the opening is 35.5" wide and 34" tall. It has a stone surround.
The wood heat appliance would be used for supplimental heat and ambiance. If I could essentially turn the heat pump off for most of the winter that would be great but not a requirement. Main reason to get it is simply becuase I want it. I realize it would take more years to recoup the cost than could be used to justify it from a utility bill savings perspective. Even with the essentially free wood.
What I'm trying to figure out is what my options are. My wife likes the look of the Quadrafire 7100 and Fireplace Xtrodinare 36. However I'm thinking that those would be overkill from a heat standpoint not to mention cost. The less expensive models that are, I think, closer in size to what would most appropriate (e.g. RSF Onyx) are not something my wife will want to spend any money on. WHat she really doesn't like is the look of louvers. I thought about something like the RSF Opel with the "Clean Face" option, but that requires the "Gravity Ducts" which would probably bring the cost up close enought the Xtrordinair 36.
So, bottom line is I want to know if there's something with the asthetics of the Quadrafire 7100/Fireplace Xtrordinair 36, but at a size/price closer to the smaller (2.5-3 cu ft firebox) options.
I'd like to keep the total cost of the project to $3500 (fireplace, stovepipe (assume 25'), pro-installation, all in). If it has to go higher that'll mean that it'll be that much longer until I do the project. I figure that any money I recoup from selling the existing gas fireplace and exhaust pipe will cover the most of the cost of any reframing of the current opening and redoing the stone surround (I'm assuming at this point that we can reuse most/all of the stone and find new ones to match - possibly a dangerous assumption I know).
I have 2 propane fireplaces in my house. Neither of them are all that great, but I really want to replace the one in the family room with a wood burning appliance. If it were just up to me I'd put in a free-standing wood stove with heat shields for reducing clearances. But SWMBO says no. She doesn't like the look of them. So I looked into inserts, but discovered that it would be prohibitively expensive to modify the bumpout where the gas fireplace is now to accept one.
Fearing my quest for wood heat was nearing an end I stopped into a wood stove dealer and discovered the high effeciency zero clearance fireplaces. A-ha! A plug-n-play wood stove that I can put in with relatively minimal modifications and still get the high effeciency heat of a stove or insert. With the potential for asthetics that SWMBO will approve of.
A few details about the house. If I miss any important ones just say so and I'll fill in the blanks. 2006 construction, and very well insulated. Fairly open floor plan. 3 bedrooms with the master on the opposite end from the rest of the bedrooms. Crawl space underneath that my wife's family can stand up in (they're shorter than average). Approx 2500sf plus a 350sf or so bonus room upstairs that's mostly a play room for the kids. We have a heat pump that, when it's not broken down (thank the Lord we have an HVAC repariman in the family - the things been tempermental since we bought the house) heats the house quite effectively. The existing gas fireplace is in the living room on an interior wall and has it's exhaust pipe going straight up through roof. It sits in a bumpout that's 24" deep, and the opening is 35.5" wide and 34" tall. It has a stone surround.
The wood heat appliance would be used for supplimental heat and ambiance. If I could essentially turn the heat pump off for most of the winter that would be great but not a requirement. Main reason to get it is simply becuase I want it. I realize it would take more years to recoup the cost than could be used to justify it from a utility bill savings perspective. Even with the essentially free wood.
What I'm trying to figure out is what my options are. My wife likes the look of the Quadrafire 7100 and Fireplace Xtrodinare 36. However I'm thinking that those would be overkill from a heat standpoint not to mention cost. The less expensive models that are, I think, closer in size to what would most appropriate (e.g. RSF Onyx) are not something my wife will want to spend any money on. WHat she really doesn't like is the look of louvers. I thought about something like the RSF Opel with the "Clean Face" option, but that requires the "Gravity Ducts" which would probably bring the cost up close enought the Xtrordinair 36.
So, bottom line is I want to know if there's something with the asthetics of the Quadrafire 7100/Fireplace Xtrordinair 36, but at a size/price closer to the smaller (2.5-3 cu ft firebox) options.
I'd like to keep the total cost of the project to $3500 (fireplace, stovepipe (assume 25'), pro-installation, all in). If it has to go higher that'll mean that it'll be that much longer until I do the project. I figure that any money I recoup from selling the existing gas fireplace and exhaust pipe will cover the most of the cost of any reframing of the current opening and redoing the stone surround (I'm assuming at this point that we can reuse most/all of the stone and find new ones to match - possibly a dangerous assumption I know).
